Why employee engagement matters

Engaging your employees in sustainability, and encouraging them to adopt more environmentally friendly activities and habits has a whole raft of benefits.

The big picture benefit is reduced carbon emissions, waste, water and pollution. But we know that people need more immediate benefits to make behaviour change work.

Do Nation has been designed to also help people feel happier, fitter  and more fulfilled at work. 

 1. Health and wellbeing benefits 

 

Healthy, happy employees are more productive employees, as countless research shows.

• Over a third of Doers feel fitter and healthier after completing their pledges
• Two thirds of people who took part in a challenge felt an increased sense of wellbeing
• 85% increased their awareness of, and interest in, environmental and social sustainability.
• 81.5% made them more proud that their organisation is involved in tackling sustainability. 

 2. A great place to work 

 

78% of millennials want to work for an organisation that makes positive social impact (Kin & Co, 2016). This means that there’s a benefit to making employees aware of and involved in your sustainability work.

Actions speak louder than words – get employees taking action and it’ll help to raise awareness of your wider sustainability work by making them feel more involved in it. 

58% of our users say they are more aware of their organisation’s sustainability work as a result of their Do Nation campaign.

" It’s been a great journey and process - I’ve learned so much more about us as an organisation. And personally I've learned so much more about climate change, and that, as an individual, has been massive for me." - Julia, Group Engagement Engagement Manager, SSE

 3. Developing leadership skills 

 

Encouraging others to adopt healthy, environmentally friendly habits requires a broad range of leadership skills – communications, influence, innovation, and project management, to name a few.

Employee engagement campaigns create a great opportunity for staff (especially those with a passion for sustainability) to develop and demonstrate these leadership skills. 

"Running our Do Nation programme almost felt like a personal training course in sustainability and leadership. It gave me a chance to experiment with different engagement skills and techniques, to see what worked for different people. I learnt that I needed to work on my influencing and communication skills and have enrolled on a course to do just that. They’re important skills not only for engaging and influencing colleagues, but also our clients. I’ll definitely be adding it to my CV!" - Rosie, Engineer, leader of Do Nation programme at Arup Cardiff

 4. Building environmental champions 

 

Having a network of champions throughout the company is valuable for any sustainability manager, amplifying their reach.

By asking people to take action and lead change, our clients have been able to identify who is most committed to sustainability, recruiting them as champions for wider sustainability work.

 5. And! Of course - reducing environmental impacts 

 

On average, workplace behaviour change programmes can reduce energy costs by 10% (Carbon Trust). That’s not to mention waste and travel costs. By engaging in sustainability, employees are more likely to factor it into their own work – unlocking significant innovations, commitments and potential savings on the bottom line. 

One of our favourite examples is from Network Rail. After pledging to use a reusable water bottle, a Network Rail director committed to phasing out purchasing 100,000’s of bottled water for employees and instead got everyone a reusable bottle.